Kellogg split in two, and the snack half became Kellanova
In October 2023 the Kellogg Company broke itself apart. North American breakfast cereal went to a new firm, while the rest, from Pringles to Pop-Tarts, took an invented name: Kellanova, blending Kell with the Latin nova, meaning new. Barely two years later the maker of M&M's bought it for nearly $30 billion.
The plan was unveiled on 21 June 2022, originally as a three-way split into cereal, snacks and plant-based foods. In January 2023 the plant-based idea was dropped and that business stayed with the snack side. When the division took effect on 2 October 2023, the cereal operations in North America became WK Kellogg Co, while Kellanova, based in Chicago, continued as the surviving company under the old New York Stock Exchange ticker K. The aim was to separate the fast-growing snack and international cereal business from the North American cereal market.
The result was a snack company with global reach. Kellanova sold crackers, toaster pastries and cereal under names including Rice Krispies Treats, Eggo and Cheez-It, and outside North America it still marketed cereals such as Frosties and Coco Pops. Its products were made and sold in over 180 countries, and its largest factory stood at Trafford Park in Greater Manchester, also home to its UK headquarters. Other offices were in Battle Creek, Michigan, Dublin, Shanghai and Querétaro in Mexico.
Mars, owner of Snickers, Starburst and Doublemint, agreed on 14 August 2024 to buy the company. American regulators at the Federal Trade Commission approved it, but the European Commission held out until 8 December 2025, pushing completion back from the first half of that year to 11 December 2025. Kellanova was then folded into Mars, chief executive Steve Cahillane stepped down, and its shares were removed from the New York Stock Exchange.
Relics of the older Kellogg identity linger, from the Toucan Sam character, which figured in a 2011 trademark dispute over another group's toucan logo, to Kellogg's Cereal City USA, a former Battle Creek tourist attraction devoted to the company's history.
Source: Kellanova
